My Old Friend Death

   

This was a recently published episode from our podcast. I love this episode so much. Brooke has been a die hard (no pun intended) fan of the project and it's just a beautiful affirmation to hear how this grassroots little movement may have been instrumental in someone's expansion. Another thing important about this episode is her unique perspective of the grief experience as young child. 

Brooke Hartman is a wife, mom, and friend. Death became an "old friend" early on in life with the loss of her grandfather- which acted as a catalyst to grief not associated with death. In her journey through multiple deaths of close friends and loved ones, Brooke learned that she had a desire to become more educated in regards to death and death practices She has become a nursing student at her local community college, where it's her goal to become an RN to work in hospice care to help educate and advocate for others regarding death. You can connect with Brooke on IG @bhartman7785.

Since this project is a one person band, I am constantly playing with ways of how to make the work involved as balanced and efficient as possible to best manage my time. It's a work in progress for sure.

One thing I did in 2020 that I found relatively successful in the endeavor was rather than record epsiodes on a near weekly basis I "batch recorded" so I'd be able to have some time off over the summer. That was effective in giving me more time for the writing projects I am doing and balancing family and life in general. 

In fact, it was successful enough that I am on my way to implementing that plan again. Many people had contacted the project asking to be included as a guest and, of course, I jotted down folks I was interested in having on an episode. So, in a great difference from the first two years of recording, I contacted those I wanted to invite in the first round and within a few days my schedule was filled for the years worth of recording. That sees me recording every Monday (US Sunday) until mid June. 

Since the project has moved to every two week episode releases, the momentum of the project is much more manageable and I can release extra episodes on the alternate weeks if something pertinent comes up. That flexibility is welcome as is the decrease in the pressure of publishing weekly.

Our podcast has recently been picked up by Luminary which is a newer and comprehensive place to listen to podcasts. You can see our  lists of where you can listen on the main webpage of the project.

Thanks for staying with this on this journey. We have some exciting things unfolding. As always it's a beautiful thing to watch the wave of death literacy projects continue to rise and the interest and conversations surrounding death becoming more and more normalized. 

As always: thanks for being here. 

Oh, and it is so very helpful if you share our project and podcast with anyone you think might need it. We've been a grassroots, word of mouth piece of work. And along those lines, if you take a moment to review the podcast when/if you listen, that is greatly helpful as well.

All things good!

Becky